Nicola Formichetti on His Racy New Muse, Brooke Candy, and the Future of Diesel

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"F*ck these shoes!" yelled out a very angry looking Brooke Candy, kicking off her Velcro ankle-wrap, pointed-toe Alexander Wang pumps, which had just come undone in the midst of some mad pole dancer gyrations during her performance at Tabloid Gallery in Tokyo on Friday evening. It was a celebration for the launch of Diesel's sexed-up spring 2014 accessories collection that also featured some very NSFW (not safe for work) shibari bondage. If you don't yet know Nicola Formichetti's new muse—either from her cameo as Grimes' pink-cornrowed and metallic bikini-wearing sidekick in her "Genesis," or as the wordsmith behind the Internet sensation "I Wanna F*ck Right Now" (chorus: "I wanna f*ck right now / I wanna, I wanna f*ck right now now)—the girl likes to say "f*ck," a lot. She's also the bisexual, former East L.A.-stripper, twerking girl power icon for the Miley Cyrus generation. We spent one night in Tokyo with the new Diesel artistic director to chat about the high-fashion bubble, working with Lady Gaga, and his vision for the Italian denim brand. Plus, the Inez & Vinoodh-shot Diesel campaign video featuring Candy's new single "Feel Yourself (Alcohol)" is yours to stream exclusively, below.

So here we are at the 'Lost in Translation' bar at the Park Hyatt Tokyo.

I got here three days ago. It's all a blur. I woke up at 2 a.m. today! Oh God, how am I going to sleep? But it's nice because you look outside and wonder, "Where are we?"

How did you pick Japan for your first accessories launch as artistic director of Diesel?

Of course I'm from here, and my mom is Japanese. Renzo [Rosso, the founder and president of Diesel] comes here all the time. He's obsessed with Japan. So we are always talking about Japan and wondered, "What if we threw a party this big in Japan?" Also, the bag is inspired by Japan—by [artist Nobuyoshi] Araki, bondage, and all that stuff, so I said "Let's do it in Tokyo." I asked Brooke to come over, who I used for the campaign. Oh my God I love her so much.

She's a riot. How did you meet?

Well, I knew of her because of Grimes' "Genesis" video. I thought, "Who the f*ck is this crazy person?" From that, it was just Googling and YouTubing and stuff. I think I met her with Terry Richardson; he was shooting her and I was there. She kind of looks like a bitch, you know? So I was hoping, "Oh my God, I hope she's not a bitch." But she was so sweet. It really reminds me ofwhen I first met Gaga.

What other qualities do they share?

She was totally like your friend, basically, but with a strong sense of "I believe in what I do, and I'm going to go for it." I thought, "Wow this girl is so special—I'd love to work with her." We decided to use her as a muse of this campaign, and now I'm going to do all her videos. I want the world to know about her.

At what point did you meet Mother Monster?

Four years ago. She had just done "Just Dance" and you know, she wasn't wearing fashion yet. It didn't matter because she looked so cool anyway. So, I just opened the door for her to the fashion industry. It was hard. You know what fashion people are like.

What's it like to find a girl who you think is amazing and will be a huge success, but the labels don't want to loan her clothes yet?

It's kind of frustrating. But in a way, I'm kind of attracted to that. I'm attracted to [someone] who [is] a little bit of an outsider. I kind of get excited to be with them and do something together almost like saying, "f*ck you" to the industry. I don't care. Kind of like, "If you don't want to give us clothes I don't care—we have McQueen anyway."

What was your first great look with Lady Gaga?

My first big performance with her was the VMAs. Her red carpet outfit was [Alexander McQueen's] red veil, the mask, the whole thing. That's when she kind of [turned] high fashion, which is a little bubble that we live in, into a global media sensation. My first video with her was "Bad Romance." I used the crazy armadillo shoes. It was the most watched YouTube [video] ever. So you're basically taking this little fashion thing that we live in and it becomes cultural. It's kind of exciting. I mean, the meat dress, whether you like it or not, it's history.

I've got a great believer in me—Renzo. I come up with all these crazy things and he supports it and makes it proper. I didn't have that before at Mugler, I just kind of did my thing and hoped for the best [at Mugler]. Now, I have a machine behind me. It's really exciting because it becomes reality. Maybe before I was just much more into the fantasy. I didn't really care about if you wore it or not.

Do you want to make clothes that are relevant?

I've been in fashion for ten years now, and I think the fashion system is a little bit old fashioned. I want to do new things. I think there are so many things that I've been seeing for a long time, and I want to give space to the young people, I want to create things that are exciting, almost what Rick Owen did last fashion week. That was a game changer. We were like, "F*ck! That was incredible." We were jealous. But I was so excited when I saw that because I was just like, "Oh, wow," you could still feel excited about fashion. It's pure love of fashion and trying new things—that's what I'm going to do.